Overlooked 'Forever Chemical' TFA Found in 91% of New Jersey Tap-Water Samples and Most Bottled Drinks Tested, NJIT Study Finds

Nanoplastics and microplastics are not the only small, hard-to-measure contaminants turning up in tap water and bottled drinks. A new study from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) found trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), an ultra-short-chain “forever chemical” that routine PFAS testing usually misses, in 64 of 70 New Jersey tap-water samples and 34 of 43 bottled beverages tested.

The study, “Occurrence of Ultra-Short Chain PFASs in Bottled Beverages and New Jersey Tap Water,” was published open access in Environmental Science & Technology Letters (first online September 12, 2026; October 2026 issue). NJIT announced the findings on October 13, 2026. The authors are Siwei Gu, Santhoshi Chitthaluri, Ebenezer Etsiwah, Bishnu Pandey and Arjun K. Venkatesan of NJIT’s Emerging Contaminants Research Laboratory. NJIT describes it as the first statewide U.S. monitoring study of ultra-short-chain PFAS.

What the NJIT team tested and found

• Samples. 113 in all: 70 tap-water samples from communities across New Jersey and 43 commercially available bottled beverages, screened for five ultra-short-chain PFAS with a specialized lab method.
• Tap water. TFA was detected in more than 91% of tap samples, with at least one detection in every one of New Jersey’s 21 counties. Among tap samples with detectable TFA, the median was 352 nanograms per liter; the highest tap result was 1,360 ng/L. Several northern and northeastern counties, including Essex, Hudson and Bergen, had higher county averages.
• Bottled beverages. TFA was found in nearly 80% of the bottled beverages tested. The 12 formulated beverages (drinks with ingredients beyond water) averaged about 52 times more TFA than the 31 bottled waters. Some electrolyte waters and sports drinks were especially high, with the top result at 94,100 ng/L.

Why TFA slips past standard testing

“Most people have heard of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) because they have been the focus of regulations and water testing for years. TFA is different,” lead author Siwei Gu said in NJIT’s announcement. “It is much smaller in molecular size, highly soluble in water, and does not bind strongly to many filter materials that work well for capturing traditional PFAS.”

According to NJIT, TFA can form from the breakdown of certain fluorinated refrigerants, pesticides and other chemicals, then travel with precipitation into surface water and drinking-water sources. The researchers note that granular activated carbon and ion-exchange resins are generally less effective at capturing TFA than many longer-chain PFAS.

What the researchers say it does and doesn’t mean

The team has not determined why some formulated drinks carried far more TFA than plain bottled water. “We did not analyze individual ingredients or investigate the manufacturing processes, so we cannot definitively identify the sources of TFA in these products,” Gu said.

“I think it is important for consumers to understand that detecting a chemical in drinking water or beverages does not necessarily mean there is an immediate health risk,” said Arjun Venkatesan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at NJIT and director of the lab. “The potential health implications depend on the concentration, frequency of exposure, and how much of the chemical is consumed over time.” The researchers call the study an initial snapshot, not a full assessment of New Jersey’s drinking-water systems, and plan to expand monitoring beyond the state.

Nanoplastics, microplastics and the smallest PFAS

The pattern is familiar to anyone following nanoplastics and microplastics: the smallest contaminants are often the hardest to measure, so they can be undercounted until better methods arrive. That is why WaterVO™ News follows nanoplastics, microplastics and PFAS together.

Sources

• Gu, S., Chitthaluri, S., Etsiwah, E., Pandey, B. & Venkatesan, A. K., “Occurrence of Ultra-Short Chain PFASs in Bottled Beverages and New Jersey Tap Water,” Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 2026 (open access): doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.6c00768
• NJIT News, “NJIT Study Finds Overlooked ‘Forever Chemicals’ Widespread in New Jersey Tap Water and Bottled Beverages,” October 13, 2026: news.njit.edu

Photo: A glass being filled at a kitchen tap, by Shixart1985 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Illustrative only; not a sample from the study.

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